Silvia's hair that had been messy early that morning, was now back in place, the same can't be said for Lacey's hair which was all falling out of her braid and was hanging wild.
Somehow even in a swamp Silvia's silver hair stayed as beautiful as ever. Silvia sat down by the fire and twisted the sticks, Lacey sat down too.
The spear on her lap, Lilly lay a little way off curled up, her beak under her splinted wing. After the children had eaten, Silvia put the fire out with dirt, they now sat beside the root cave.
"What are we going to do? We can't fly back until Lilly's wings are healed, and we can't climb the mountain, because it's a cliff and Tim couldn't make it with a broken leg." Silvia said, listing the things on her fingers.
"Well let's try to go around the mountain." "I could go see if there is a way around then come back so Tim doesn't have to make the trip." Lacey suggested.
"That could work." Silvia said excitedly. "And I will stay with Tim and Lilly. We will stay here. It will probably take all day to make the trip." Silvia continued, Lacey nodded and got up and picked up the spear, then headed off going east she stayed right up against the cliff of the mountain.
She walked for an hour or two, before she stopped to take a break, and set her spear down beside her. She sighed then got up again and walked on.
The sun was high in the sky when she reached the beach? "What.." She walked to the end where the ground came to an abrupt ledge. She stood on the ledge and looked down into ink bluey black water that dashed up against the ledge.
She sat down and watched the water for a while thinking hard, she shook herself, got up and headed back. It took her longer to get back, the sun was setting reds and pinks colored the sky.
When she got to place, they had crashed at. Lacey stopped when she saw Silvia waiting for her. "So?" Silvia said. "There's no way to go that way it's a ledge that goes straight into crashing water." Lacey replied.
"Oh." Silvia said. "I will go check the other side." She continued. "Tonight?" Lacey asked. Silvia nodded then headed out the other way without another word. Lacey headed back toward the root cave. Tim and Lilly sat beside the already going fire.
A crab on a stick was waiting for her. She sat and ate, Tim and Lacey both were too deep in thought to speak so they ate in silence. The sun disappeared and the mist set in.
They put the fire out and crawled into the root cave to sleep. But Lacey stayed awake worrying about Silvia in the fog. "But she's smart. She will be fine." She had to keep telling herself that and when she did sleep it was light and restless.
Lacey awoke from a dream that as soon as she was awake she couldn't remember, she sat up and slammed her head on the roof of the cave, she grimaced as she left the cave of roots and went out into the early morning.
The fog was light. Her sleep was usually not filled with dreams, but this side of the island was trippy and gave her feelings that she had never had before, being a princess she had never had a care in the world and coming to the island.
The dress had made her feel safe and had kept her happy. She stretched and tried to shake the uneasy feeling off. Undoing her hair, she combed her fingers through it, blood was still caked on her head, but she braided it again as best she could.
Feeling a little better she picked up the spear that, when she was standing and had it straight up and down, it came a foot higher to her five foot nine. She looked at her newly found spear in the dim light.
She needed to find a way to strap it to her back, but still get to it quickly, she sighed, running her hand over the handle, the big blade on the top was as big as her hands put together.
There was a pointed metal piece at the bottom. She looked it over carefully; it was littler than it seemed. She was so focused on her spear that when she heard the footsteps, she jumped a little looking up, she made out Silvia's small form in the dim light.
Silvia did not say a word and just sat down beside Lacey. Silence fell for a couple minutes before Silvia spoke. "That way is a dead end. We have to go somewhere where there's water that we can drink." Lacey listened to Silvia as she spoke, she sounded tired and defeated.
"I went a little way to see if I could find water to drink, but it is all just mud and black water that smells terrible. But there has to be a spring somewhere." Silvia was stopped by a yawn.
"Go sleep. We can go later." Lacey said, Silvia nodded and crawled into the cave.
Lacey got up and went to one of the dead trees with vines all around it and slowly got herself a big bundle of vines then sat down and got to work.
About an hour later the sun came into view, Lacey held up her finished vine creation. She laughed, she did not know what to call it, she had weaved the vines into a makeshift weapon holder, and she stood up jumping around.
Her legs had fallen asleep. The holder fit well enough; though she had some trouble getting the spear into it. When she finally got it in, it felt strange she took it out then put it back a couple times to get a better hang of it.
Silvia came out of the root cave dragging Tim out with her. "Tim will have to ride on Lilly so we can move faster." Silvia said, Tim sighed. "Where are we going?" Tim asked. "To find water, you can't say you are not thirsty?" Silvia answered him. "Yeah, because you said something about it." Tim said, groaning.
"You get to ride Lilly." Silvia said, turning to the sleeping Lilly who lifted her head at her name. "Come on Lilly, let's go. Will you lay down so that Tim can get onto your back?"
Lilly walked over to where Silvia was and then lay down next to her waiting patiently as the girls carefully helped Tim onto her back. Then the little group slowly headed farther into the dead swamp.